


to see you smile

by bluesandbirds



Series: obligatory high school au oneshots [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Relationships, Technoblade and Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit are Siblings, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit Friendship, TommyInnit Angst (Video Blogging RPF), soft, they're best friends your honor, tiniest bit angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27396268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesandbirds/pseuds/bluesandbirds
Summary: it starts with tekkit, or maybe it doesn't, and that's the problem.or tommy is sad and tubbo doesn't know how to fix it (luckily he's got a lot of friends to help).
Relationships: Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Series: obligatory high school au oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010682
Comments: 73
Kudos: 1314
Collections: Tommy and Tubbo Friendship Supremacy





	to see you smile

**Author's Note:**

> the beginning is inspired by tubbo's tekkit stream on september 27th  
> this is 100% platonic pls don't ship these two i'll rob your bones
> 
> this is my attempt to make people stop crying in my comments

Tommy is having a bad day. A terrible, rotten, certified shit day.

He got home from school—a hellscape that only added to the horribleness of his day—and figured, _hey, what better way to cheer up than playing your favorite game with your favorite person?_

Okay, so maybe Tekkit is more Tubbo's favorite game, but it's basically regular Minecraft. At least, that's what Tommy thought until he spawned in completely confused and unsure.

He's being annoying, he can tell, but he's tired, and frustrated, and overwhelmed and Tubbo is not helping.

"Can you please just explain it to me?" he says for what feels like the ninth time.

Tubbo answers with a similar frustrated tone. "I don't want to explain it. I just want to play, man."

He groans. "Well, I wanna play too, but you're not helping me."

"Tommy, it's vanilla Minecraft. I refuse to believe you're this incompetent!"

And Tommy's day, week, month, _year_ has been nothing but terrible, rotten, and certified shit, so what's he to do but just _break_?

“Look, Tubbo, I know I’m stupid, but you don’t have to make me feel like it too!” His voice cracks at the end of the sentence and he mutes himself so he can let out a sob.

There’s a brief, horrified silence on the other end of the call.

Tommy sniffles and wishes he’d learned to _shut his fucking mouth_.

“Tommy,” Tubbo whispers.

He unmutes. “Just—just forget it, Tubbo.”

He hangs up before the other boy can say anything.

\---

Tubbo isn’t good with emotions.

He likes facts—facts about space, and Minecraft, and bees.

He likes data—crunching numbers and statistics.

But his best friend just started crying on him and hung up before Tubbo could say anything, so he resolves to get good at emotions. For Tommy. For his best friend.

\---

As he does when he’s trying to learn about any given subject, Tubbo starts with consulting the experts. He doesn’t think Google and Wikipedia will be much help with this, but luckily, he’s got plenty of older, wiser experts to help him out.

He starts with Eret. His big brother knows most things, Tubbo finds, and he's always willing to help out when Tubbo's struggling.

He pokes his head into his brother's room. "Eret?"

The desk chair swirls around revealing Eret with a warm smile. "What's up?"

Tubbo slowly edges into the room, not sure how to breach the subject. "Eret, what do you do when someone's sad?"

The smile is replaced by a concerned frown. "Why do you ask?"

Tommy doesn't like showing his emotions. He thinks it makes him weak. He especially wouldn't appreciate Tubbo telling everybody about his breakdown over a video game. Then, he'd only get more upset.

"Just a hypothetical."

His brother raises an eyebrow.

"I really can't tell you. Super secret. Big Law business, you know how it is."

Eret gives him a look that means _we'll discuss later_ and says, "Okay, sure. Well, I'd try to show them lots of support. I think just having someone in your corner can mean a lot to people."

Tubbo nods slowly. "That makes sense." He smiles. "Thanks, Eret."

He gives his brother a quick hug before dashing out the room.

\---

Of course, like any good researcher, Tubbo doesn't stop there. Everybody knows you have to confirm your sources.

\---

His sister is in the kitchen stirring a pot of something delicious smelling and swaying along to music from her phone. She turns at the sound of footsteps.

"Hello, Tubbo."

"Niki," he says, sliding into a chair at the island. "Important question for you."

"Go on."

"What do you do when someone is sad?"

She hums thoughtfully, wiping her hands on her apron. "Well, when my friends are sad, I usually bake them something and leave a nice message."

He rolls that around his mind. "What if, hypothetically, I wasn't good at baking?"

Niki gestures him over and hands him the spoon. 

He takes over stirring as she walks over to the pantry to grab more ingredients.

"It's mainly the thought that counts," she says as she emerges, "It doesn't have to be anything complex."

Tubbo watches her sprinkle in salt.

"Hypothetically, could you teach me how to bake?"

She grabs the spoon back and mixes in the added seasonings.

"Of course," Niki replies, "how about, hypothetically, on Friday night?"

"Sounds hypothetically good."

She holds out the spoon for him to taste.

"More garlic," he says.

Niki nods. "Good call."

\---

He wakes up that Thursday morning with one more mission.

Backpack over his shoulder and goal in mind, he descends the stairs into the living room.

"Heya, Cap," he says, using his dad's nickname that he hears his old friends call him over the phone.

His dad ruffles his hair. "Hi, duckling," he responds in kind, "What'cha need?"

"How would you help someone who's sad?"

His dad tilts his head "Eret and Niki told me you asked them the same thing. Is this for a school project or something?"

Lightbulb.

"Yes," Tubbo says, like an evil little genius, "yes it is. Psychology. Something about emotional responses and how they differ from person to person. I'm collecting data. Data and statistics."

"Oh, I didn't even know you took Psychology,"—Tubbo winces (emphasis on _like_ an evil genius)—"but I suppose I'd tell them how much they mean to me. Tell them that I love them."

Tubbo grins brightly. He can do that.

"Okay, thank you, Dad, I love you."

"Love you too, duckling."

\---

Tubbo heads to school with an abundance of knowledge and a great cover story.

He repeats the study with each of their friends.

"I'd get them a gift. Something nice to cheer them up."

"Spend loads of time with them."

"Compliment them. Make them feel good."

"Try to make them laugh."

"Give them lots of hugs."

Finally, he goes to Wilbur because Wilbur is his friend too and Techno seems too awkward for this sort of thing. (Also he’s a little scared of what Techno will do to him if he finds out Tubbo made his little brother cry.)

Wilbur's face flickers through a series of many emotions at an alarming rate. Tubbo watches him go from confused to suspicious to upset before realization dawns on him.

"Oh," he says softly.

Tubbo looks at him pleadingly. _I can fix it. Let me fix it._

Wilbur sighs a little and says, "Listen to them. Let them talk and actually hear them. Being a good ear can go a long way."

He nods gratefully. "Thank you, Wilbur."

Wilbur pats his shoulder and he's on his way.

He never talks to Techno, but Wilbur must have because after sixth period there's a piece of notebook paper in his locker that reads _Alpha Male Coupon, when redeemed will force Techno Blade-Craft to address Tommy Innit-Craft as an_ Alpha Male. _O_ _ne time only. Non-transferrable._

He smiles and tucks it into his binder.

\---

On Saturday, Tubbo gets to work, armed with the love languages of all their closest friends.

There's a park by Tommy's house with a trail behind it that leads to a little hill with a perfect view of the sunset. Tubbo and Tommy like to sit at the worn, old bench at the top and listen to music together.

He's set to go to _their spot_ with Tommy in one hour.

Eret lends him his bluetooth speaker. Niki helps him fill a basket without burning the food or the house. Dad drops him off at Tommy's house and drives ahead to set it all up.

The walk over to the park is a big success in Tubbo's book.

He lands every joke, Tommy's laughter shaking the entire neighborhood. By the time they make it to the park, their stomachs and faces are cramping from laughing.

Tubbo leads the way along the path up to their bench on the hill.

Tommy makes a confused noise when he sees all of the stuff.

There's a checkered blanket on the ground and a large basket on top of it. Next to it is Tubbo's backpack containing a speaker for music and an _Alpha Male_ coupon.

"Tubbo? What is all this?" Tommy says, crease between his brow.

His hands play with the hem of his shirt. "Well, you were sad the other day, and I wasn't sure why, but I know you've been struggling with school and mean people, and so I just wanted to do something nice for you because you're my best friend and I care about you, and you're so smart and funny and nice and I don't know what I'd do without you." He glances over at the sun slowly dipping lower and lower in the sky. "And so I thought we could come here and you could talk and I could listen. Because Tommy, basically what I'm trying to say is..." He looks at his friend. "I love you a lot, Tommy."

Tommy eyes flick between him, and the picnic, and the speaker, and the sunset.

And suddenly Tubbo has a face full of red shirt.

He can hear sniffling over his shoulder. Hands clutch at the back of his button down.

"Thank you, Tubbo."

He hugs his friend back. "Always, Big T."

**Author's Note:**

> i know i should be working on my business bay series, but it'd be so much easier if they stopped being like "the festival is the end of it all... oops where the button" and then "we're gonna have an ultimatum meeting on friday. will quackity trick schlatt or will wilbur blow it all up?... there's no tnt, it's all buttons, jk not today" and now "war on the 16th, secret traitor, nothing means anything, george has awoken" like, i love it all but by the gods please just settle on something so i can write a conclusion


End file.
